NY art dealer gives auctioned masks to Ariz. tribe

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A New York art dealer who bought two Native American
masks for $40,000 at a Paris auction in April has given them to the Hopi tribe
in northern Arizona.

Monroe Warshaw tells the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff he’s just happy he did
the right thing by handing over artifacts the tribe considers sacred.

Advocates for the tribe had argued in court in Paris that the masks represent
their dead ancestors’ spirits and are not art. A judge refused to block the
auction of dozens of masks believed taken from the tribe’s reservation in the
1930s and 1940s.

A tribal rights group bought one and returned it to the tribe in July.

The Hopi Cultural Preservation Office director tells the Daily Sun that Warshaw
handed over the items last week.